Spanish
Spanish Spanish (español) is a Romance language named for its origins as the native tongue of a large proportion of the inhabitants of Spain. It is also named Castilian (castellano http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Es_castellano_001.ogg listen (help·info)) after the Spanish region of Castile where it originated. Spanish is the second most natively spoken language in the world, after Mandarin Chinese.[5][6][7][8][9][10][11] In 1999 there were, according to Ethnologue, 358 million people speaking Spanish as a native language and a total of 417 million speakers[12] worldwide. Currently these figures are between 400[2][3] and 500[4][13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20][21][22][23][24][25][26][27] million people respectively. Mexico contains the largest population of Spanish speakers. Spanish is one of the six official languages of the United Nations, and is used as an official language by the European Union and Mercosur. Spanish is a part of the Ibero-Romance group that evolved from several dialects of spoken Latin in central-northern Iberia around the ninth century[28] and gradually spread with the expansion of the Kingdom of Castile (present northern Spain) into central and southern Iberia during the later Middle Ages. Early in its history, the Spanish vocabulary was enriched by its contact with Basque and Arabic, and the language continues to adopt foreign words from a variety of other languages, as well as developing new words. Spanish was taken most notably to the Americas as well as to Africa and Asia-Pacific with the expansion of the Spanish Empire between the fifteenth and nineteenth centuries, where it became the most important language for government and trade.[29] Due to its increasing presence in the demographics and popular culture of the United States, particularly in the fast-growing states of theSun Belt, Spanish is the most popular second language learned by native speakers of American English. The increasing political stability and economies of many larger Hispanophone nations, the language's immense geographic extent in Latin America and Europe fortourism, and the growing popularity of warmer, more affordable, and culturally vibrant retirement destinations found in the Hispanic world have contributed significantly to the growth of learning Spanish as a foreign language across the globe. Spanish is the third most commonly used language on the Internet after English and Mandarin. It is also the third most studied language and third language in international communication, after English and French, in the world.[30][31][32] Resources 'Rosetta Stone' *5 levels available for for both Spain Spanish and Latin American Spanish *Recommended as a beginning tool. *'Strongly not recommended to be used as the only tool.' *Covers pronounciation, reading, listening, vocabulary, writing. *Very poor for grammar. *Easy to use. Shouldn't take more than an hour to set up and begin using. *More expensive than it's worth. Tank you based internet! 'Pimsleur ' *4 levels Available with 120 lessons available. *Recommended as a learning tool. *'Strongly not recomended to be used as the only tool.' *Covers mainly speaking and being able to hold a conversation. *Easy to use, just open the audio file and repeat. *Much more expensive than it's worth. Thank you based internet! 'Duolingo' *Unlimited advancement available. *Recommended as an adjenct learning tool. *Not recommended to be used as the only tool. *Covers every field. *Very useful as it offers a lot of material for translation, forcing the user on a hands on approach while offering good aid. *3 minutes to create an account and know all there is to it about how it works. *Free. Thank you based anon! 'Books and .PDF files' * 'Movies and TV' *'English movies and TV dubbed in Spanish.' The Spanish love to dub things, so if you have seen a movie or TV series before in English, download it in Spanish, without the subtitles, and watch it. Many people say this is one of the best ways to learn the language. Many foreign people who have learned English say this is how they done it, so take note. : Highly rated or recommended Spanish language movies: *Amores Perros *Balada Triste de Tompeta *Biutiful *Como Agua Para Chocolate *El Infierno *La Piel Que Habito *Lovers of the Artic Circle *Pans Labyrinth *Volver *Y Tu Mama Tambien 'Music' *'Band/singer (category)' *Buena Vista Social Club - Vocal *Cypess Hill (Exitos en Español) - Rap *Doble V - Spanish Rap *Don Omar - Rap *Tego Calderon - Rap *SFDK - Rap Other